A Flash Of Scarlet
by Andorax
Summary: What happens when the infamous Salamander is contracted to destroy Fairy Tail? A deadly battle between an Angel and a Demon that turns into anything but.
1. Chapter 1 - Atop The Blazing Sky

**Chapter 1 – Atop The Blazing Sky**

Balance was necessary. It was necessary for both good and evil. It was necessary for there to BE good and evil, but most of all, balance was especially necessary for the infamous Salamander who was currently dancing and pirouetting around a dozen steel swords that were all flying straight towards him. His sense of balance was the only thing keeping him on the burning rooftop of the Fairy Tail guild hall.

 _'Burn them to ash.'_ Those were the orders that he'd been given, that was what his contract had stated. When he'd agreed to it, it had been as clear as black and white, but now? Now that he was balancing his steady feet on unsteady wooden beams, facing off against the Fairy Queen, he wasn't so sure.

In his defence, his employers were clearly expecting this to happen, after all, he WAS the Salamander, the most unstable solo mage that ever accepted jobs from Dark Guilds and people of a similar renown.

Somebody wanted Fairy Tail dead, that kind of job paid well, and he needed the money so it was right up his alley when a messenger had found him and offered him the meeting. Two weeks down the line, after hunting down various members of Fairy Tail, whether it was to show them glimpses of himself in the shadows, or to simply beat them up with his face hidden, all to give their guild some paranoia, he'd taken his time with it. There was no killing though, and that was something that had struck him as strange, the fact that he'd had dozens of opportunities but he hadn't taken a single one of them.

You see, Salamander wasn't strictly a dark mage, he was a mage that had no problems with going to the effort of killing an enemy but only on the grounds that they were entirely deserving to face the flames of Hell. It was a gift that he'd had for nearly all of his life, a gift that was given to him the moment that he had one day opened his eyes not as a Human, but as a Demon.

Not a single member of Fairy Tail was corrupted in their hearts, therefore, even though he had been specified to obliterate every trace of the Guild, he simply could not personally end their lives.

That was the first time that he had failed a contract on such a grand degree, but today was a day full of firsts for him. Today was also the first time that he had been so engaged in a single fight that he'd forgotten about the world all around him.

As Salamander ducked and dodged around the silver flashes of steel, a fire burned within his eyes that told his opponent that there was no forefront of his previous mission on his mind, nothing else existed in this world except for the Fairy Queen that had cut and torn at his tough skin, Titania who had brought his down through dirt, concrete and entire buildings, Erza Scarlet who had finally been an opponent strong enough to let the Demon within him finally run free and exhaust himself.

She didn't know the extent of his business with Fairy Tail, hell, she hardly even cared any more. During the lengths of their fight, she had witnessed him actively go out of his way to prevent the deaths of her Guild mates, and yet, here he was, standing atop the burning remains of the Fairy Tail Guild hall, fighting back against her with tooth and claw, providing her with the toughest fight of her life, and grinning the entire time.

She didn't know whether or not she had been a fool to accept Salamander's confusing terms when he'd first arrived, bringing chaos with him in every step that he took, but she did know that no matter what, she wasn't about to lose to him, not here, not now, not ever. She'd finally found a rival for herself, if she could even call her would be assassin that.

"Tell me, Salamander... What did you really come here for?" Erza's strong voice called out, being heard only by her opponent over the sound of the roaring flames that was quickly devouring the last remains of their crumbling footing. It would be only a matter of time before the entire building caved in on itself, taking both herself and Salamander with it. She might be able to survive that if she could requip from her heaven's wheel armour into her adamantine armour quick enough, but that was an after-thought buried deep in her mind because of her current focus on the engaging Onyx eyes that were locking with her own.

A short plume of black smoke shot out of his nose before he grinned once again, the answer was something within his mind, but for the life of him, he had no idea what it was. Meeting her brown eyes was the only thing that mattered in that moment, "Does it matter, Fairy Queen? The only reason I'm here is because you alone have the power to set me free from the chains that hold me..." Salamander's feral grin had turned into something else, a slight smile of remembrance, possibly from a time long passed?

Erza eyed him quietly, letting her heaven's wheel armour gently take her feet aloft so that she wouldn't fall with the burning building. "To the victor go the spoils of war. To the Angel that can kill a Demon, she will be granted his soul... So, let's see just how much power you're hiding from me." With that, Salamander set the skies aflame in an orange blaze. The monstrosity roaming around in Human form had belted into the skies only to have his fist met with steel. Onyx eyes never turning away from the determined brown gaze of Erza Scarlet. She no longer knew why she was fighting him, all that she knew was that he was easily as strong as her in nearly all aspects, except for the fact that he was fighting for the thrill of the fight, she however...

Was about to punish him for reducing her Guild hall to ash.

 **Earlier That Day**

A tall hooded man walked down a dirt path that led to the harbour town of Magnolia. The sun was bearing down on him but neither that nor the thickness of the fabric covering his body made him feel even remotely uncomfortable. Heat naturally flowed around his body anyway so an extra layer and a few degree of hotter weather were the least of his concerns. What he was irritated by was the fact that looking down upon the town of Magnolia, he could already tell that he was going to have a terrible time achieving success on his mission.

In the far distance of the town there was a building that stood out among the rest, not because it had three stories, not because it had a vast banner sporting the Fairy Tail mark across it, but rather because of the fact that without even needing to see the building, he could FEEL the masses of magical power all gathered there.

If all that power only belonged to a small group of people then he was going to be in for a long fight, but on the other hand, there could be well over a hundred mages inside. Only time would tell. The mage known so widely as Salamander let out a loud groan. He was hungry, he was tired, he was massively irritated because of those two things put together. All he really wanted to do was find a place to get some breakfast. He'd overslept underneath an especially serene canopy in the woods and ended up waking to dawn rising, which was about five hours too late for his initial plan to level the Guild hall when there was no one there.

His groan was aimed at the person who didn't seem to realize that the tree they were leaning against was simply not wide enough to hide a body that vastly populated by masses of muscle. The smooth tanned skin belonging to the hulking giant seemed to glisten in the few strands of sunlight that had filtered down through the leaves above.

"If I don't like what you have to say, I will end your life right now, Ajax." Salamander muttered quietly, knowing full well that this man was entirely capable of hearing him, even as nothing more than irritable mumblings.

"Relax Salamance-"

"Salamander." The rapidly angering mage corrected the larger man without a second thought.

"Whatever." The giant bald man waved casually, clearly not caring for the wrath that Salamander was capable of, "I'm not here on behalf of the boss, I'm just here to watch. There are a lot of variables that you need to consider, namely the Guild Master." He continued, watching the hooded man out of the corner of striking blue eyes.

"The old man? Oh yeah, he's a strong Wizard Saint or something, right?" Salamander responded, either completely unphased by that or just an expert at hiding his true reactions. Ajax couldn't tell, but it didn't matter, not really. Once Salamander either succeeded or failed in his mission, he would be gone without a trace. He truly was only here to watch and neither himself nor his employers would be tied to the infamous mage.

"Yes, he is. He's mastered more than one area of magic and has fingers in many more magical pies." Ajax resisted the urge to laugh at his words.

Salamander stopped walking and regarded Ajax wearily. "You phrased that really weird... But I know exactly what you're talking about. One of the Ten Wizard Saints and you guys still want me to kill him? A Wizard Saint makes my original triple, now leave, I'm going to have to blow up this entire town if I can find a good loophole." Salamander muttered, mostly to himself more than anything else.

"None of what you just said made any sense." Ajax sighed. The dark mage had been present when they had first made contact with Salamander and the whole thing just just been a headache waiting to happen, but after the boss had gotten impatient and tried his hand a testing the younger mage, it became terrifyingly clear that there was no mistaking it, this man really was the Salamander, that much was evidenced by the side of their Guild Hall that was still smouldering from a simple flick of his wrist.

"It wouldn't make sense to you because I wasn't talking to you past the point that I said 'now leave'. Which, by the way, you should do. Be gone, Ajax." The pink haired mage shooed his hands towards Ajax who merely smiled at that. Fine, he would take his cue, he'd been planning on watching from the shadows anyway.

"Yes sir, great mighty Demon Lord king Salamance sir!" Salamander caught Ajax's mock salute before he had been swallowed by the shadows of the tree he was stood against. A dark power for an especially dark mage. Salamander would be happy to receive a job request that would pit him against Ajax and his guild, now THAT would be an easy job but a fun job none the less.

"It's Sala- and he's gone..." Salamander mused quietly to himself before returning his sights on the target. The Fairy Tail Guild hall. A plan of attack might have been good but he was never that good at planning these things, ever, so instead he just decided that he'd do what he always did. He was going to march right up to their front doors before kicking them in and demanding that the strongest person there had to fight him. It was usually quite a good tactic, he just hoped that he'd be able to get a good warm-up fight before facing the Wizard Saint. Now THAT seemed like a good enough plan to him. With that decided, he marched on, straight towards Fairy Tail.

 **A/N: So, whaddya think?**


	2. Chapter 2 - The Strongest Fairy

**Chapter 2 – The Strongest Fairy**

A Wizard Saint, huh? That threw a spanner in the works, but he was still fairly confident that he would be able to at least hold his own if it was a clean one on one fight, he WAS an extremely prolific Demon after all, not that he would ever tell anyone that.

The original dark mage, Zeref, was known by pretty much everyone, well, the stories and legends that surrounded the name was known by pretty much everyone, the real interesting details were held in knowledge by only a handful of people in the past four hundred years. The Salamander was one such individual.

As he continued to get closer and closer to the Guild hall, his thoughts drifted between a fight with Makarov, and those specific juicy details surrounding the truth about Zeref. For instance, there was only one person who knew that Zeref's name was Dragneel, and the only person who knew that, was Natsu Dragneel, the younger brother of Zeref himself. Natsu was a name that only a few were granted with, the rest of the world knew him only as the Salamander.

He'd been fighting against his inner darkness for over four hundred years, his new hellish nature often bringing him to his knees, weak and at the mercy of a monster that lived inside his own mind. He'd been able to keep himself contained for so long. This was the path that he'd walked down since he'd awoken as a Demon, and yet he wasn't any mere low-level Demon that Zeref had decided to let roam free.

The brother of Zeref was none other than the most feared legend there was, E.N.D. It was an apt name as Salamander was the last thing that many would see if they had lived their life in the wrong ways.

He was finally standing in front of some giant oaken doors. There was noise behind them but nothing that would suggest anything different from what you'd expect to be happening in a Guild hall. "Time to make a good first impression." He laughed darkly to himself before casually lifting a single leg clad in deep midnight black combat trousers that had a few scuffs and nicks on them. They were meticulously tied underneath some tattered combat boots of the same colour. With little effort at all, his heel slammed into the usually open doors of the Fairy Tail Guild.

His foot had met the seam where both doors met one another and from the force he'd managed to break them both clean of their hinges. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, all watching as the hooded figure dressed all in black started to walk into their Guild hall as if he owned the place.

"Somebody wants you fairies dead, and yet I cannot find a single trace of corruption in your hearts. Good for you, it means that I could never kill you, so... How about a deal?" Natsu's rich voice was easily heard over the almost deafening silence that had fallen upon the members of the Guild.

Within a few seconds he had thoroughly surveyed them in all of their entirety, including the varied levels of pressure that were contained within their bodies. There were some overwhelming waves coming from the bar where an old man sat with a beer in his hand.

"It was quite rude to break into the Guild like that, we would have opened the doors if you'd have knocked." The old man remarked quite casually all things considered. He must have been power sensitive, looking over the seemingly weak pressure that enveloped the pink haired intruder. That always made Natsu smile, it meant that he could trick almost anyone into getting into a fight that they believed themselves overly capable of winning.

The thing about Demons was that they each held immense restrictions on their power, the same went for Natsu Dragneel who could only reach his full potential when he willingly accepted the darkness inside him.

Natsu looked over his shoulder at the totally splintered doors, "I've never been very good at judging how much strength is needed to do things... I guess the bare minimum was still a little bit too much, oh well." He muttered to himself before looking back at the elderly man.

"Those two are pretty strong, whoever is on the second floor is strong as well, possibly your Guild's ace but you are by far the strongest mage in this building and that must make you master Makarov." Natsu listed off with joy before his features turned into something straight out of a nightmare.

"Someone REALLY wants you dead." He announced with a feral grin before it returned to normal, "But like I said, I can't kill any of you, you're all totally void of evil, the one upstairs has a distinct vibe of 'asshole' but he ain't evil." He sighed with a shrug. His appearance in their Guild was nothing short of complete and utter confusion.

"So, let's make a deal. I want to fight the strongest Fairy. If your member can defeat me, I will flip the contract on those who sought to take your heads, and I will totally demolish their Guild, for free. But if you can't beat me, then I will turn your Guild hall to ash." As he had announced this, they all watched with baited breath as flames danced around the fingers of his right hand.

There was total silence before a red-headed woman that had been sitting at the bar, turned to face him for the first time. "Tell me your name and I'll tell you mine." She announced, standing to meet him. Just a little further to the side of the bar, Gray and Lucy held hitched breaths from what they were watching. Erza was terrifying at the best of times but the feelings that most of them were getting from this man was outright shadowing Erza's ability to instill fear in people, not that it was even remotely effective on her.

"Names are for friends, but the world seems happy enough to call me Salamander." He announced with a slight smirk that turned into a full blown grin when the room burst into whispers.

"Very well, by your methods the world calls me Titania, the Fairy Queen." There was no negative emotion in her voice, but Natsu could already see that there was immense pride in her and it was almost threatening to come out as malice aimed towards the man who most considered as a dark mage.

"Erza, if you wish to take this challenge then I cannot stop you, but please, BOTH of you, fight outside the Guild. You would not be doing very well in keeping your word if you burned our Guild down without even finishing the fight." Makarov announced. It was entirely clear that this was a request only in appearance when in actuality there was absolutely no way that the two of them would even get close to having a good fight inside the Guild hall right after their master had told them not to.

"Yeah sure, whatever. Oh man I'm so excited! The Fairy Queen! That's so badass!" Natsu grinned to himself before following Titania outside and over to a large clearing where there was nothing but grass. That was fine, there was nothing to accidentally burn down but her.

"Requip! Flame empress armour!" Natsu heard her shout and before his eyes could adjust to the almost blinding light. The Salamander stared with his jaw slacked. The rest of the Guild that had followed them out to watch Erza fight had all started to adopt a similar sort of smirk that spread across their faces. There was no way Erza was going to lose to a dark mage. Even if that mage happened to be Salamander, she could take him, right?

Makarov stood with his arms folded, watching with great interest. This man was 'said' to be a dark mage but dark mages all had a certain feel about them, they were all at one point or another descending into the deepest parts of depravity and evil, but this man seemed to be the pinnacle of chaotic neutral at best.

"Oh my god," Natsu choked out in a strained whisper, "I think I'm falling in love." He almost laughed when he saw that the strongest Fairy had donned some armour wreathed in metal flames. To him it was the picture of beauty. Luckily for him, nobody heard his mumbling.

Erza offered him with no response but instead pushed forwards with speed that he didn't think she'd be capable of. It was nothing that he couldn't handle but it was nice, a good speed to start with, it meant that he could fight her without magic as a warmup.

"Well this is fucking great." Natsu whispered happily before swinging his fist fast and straight. His arm curved in a path that moved with such ferocity that his sleeves whistled as the air rushed around them. His hand collided with the flat of Erza's blade, shattering it into dozens of shiny pieces of metal that all clattered to the ground.

For the second time that day, the whole Guild was speechless. "Oh... Shit..." Gray announced out of nowhere. Erza cast her iron gaze from the broken hilt of her sword to the grinning smirk of the Salamander.

"Enough physical strength to shatter steel without the use of magic. Requip! Purgatory armour!" Another flash of light covered their eyes before Erza's body returned to visibility, this time completely clad in that spikey black armour that oozed nightmares just from the look of it.

In Natsu's mind, the spiked club that she'd swapped out the sword for was going to take way more than a single punch. Even though it hadn't been a fitting warm up, his single strike on Erza's flame empress' sword was going to be the best warm up that she'd give him. She was getting serious already, perhaps she had initially underestimated what he'd be capable of?

"Erza, be wary, the Salamander is rumored to be a lost magic user!" Gray shouted after Levy had whispered it in his ear.

Natsu tilted his head ever so slightly towards Gray's voice but his eyes of firm darkness remained locked with Erza's own brown eyes, one of which, Natsu had noticed had a concentration of magic gathering around. "He's close, I guess." Natsu shrugged before breathing in a large lungful of air, his lungs immediately turning it into incredible masses of magical power.

"FIRE DRAGON ROAR!" Salamander bellowed, funneling a huge whirlwind of fire straight towards Erza. She only narrowly managed to hide her body behind her huge club that hadn't done that greatly to prevent the fire from scorching her skin.

"I'm a Dragon Slayer, among other things." He grinned, showing Erza that in this very moment, he'd forgotten all about his mission. The only things he could really think about was the fact that she had been able to shrug off the majority of his flames with ease. Just how much latent power was stored inside her body awaiting release? He doubted that even she realized how truly strong she was, but Natsu was damn sure that he was going to bring it all out and show her how great she was.

Right before he struck the strongest Fairy out of the skies. Once again the two of them clashed in a brutal display of raw strength. It had to be said that Erza was terrifyingly strong, even when compared to people like Makarov himself who was a Titan, but Natsu? The Salamander had such rigorous physical conditioning over all of his years alive, there were very few beings alive that could match him in brute strength, and that much became clear when he pushed back at her with an iron fist attack that sent her hurtling towards a thick line of trees.

"Requip! Heaven's wheel!" This time, Natsu's eyes had thoroughly adjusted to that searing flash of white, he could see the changes as they happened, and it was purely amazing.

"Heaven's wheel, eh? You know, Fairy Queen, it's said that only an Angel can kill a Demon. Let's see just how far you can go." Natsu grinned, speaking mostly to himself yet Erza had heard him regardless. She didn't have any other words to offer him though, this was a fight that she was starting to enjoy just as much as the monster of a man she was faced with. His brute strength was amazing and he had so far only shown her a brief glimpse of the magic he had and yet he'd managed to force her through two requips with only a couple of attacks.

As he held his hands apart, letting his body fall into a brilliant stance of attack, his clenched fists had been entirely engulfed in flames. "I'm gettin' all fired up!" He to himself. The ground shook when the two colossal forces hit each other again. Natsu was so engrossed in his fight that he had almost missed the unmistakable feeling of being watched by some powerful time magic. Almost.

 **A/N: How about a review? It usually inspires authors to write more.**


	3. Chapter 3 - Defeat

**Chapter 3 - Defeat**

 _'Kill her! Tear her to pieces, burn her to ash, devour her soul!'_ The voice inside Natsu's head screamed at him. The pure manifestation of E.N.D was awake once again, like he always was whenever Natsu got into a fight that truly thrilled him. There was always the downside of finding a strong opponent, that being Natsu having to fight off his darkness as well as his enemy.

E.N.D was always there, but he was silent, watching through the bars of his mental cage in complete silence, except for the midst of battle, that was when the Demon yearned to be free. If there was an opponent that Natsu found worthy then so did E.N.D.

There was no way that Natsu was about to give in to temptation, to let the darkness cover his eyes any-more. He was Natsu Dragneel and it had been nearly three hundred years since he had been E.N.D, but the presence was always there, and Natsu was well aware of that.

Sword after sword after sword was thrust at his face and body. He only managed to narrowly avoid them all with inches to spare as his flames eagerly licked around the blades and danced rhythmically through the air towards the Fairy Queen who's own enjoyment was starting to push through.

 _'Kill the Angel before she enslaves us Natsu. The light isn't as good as you think.'_ E.N.D rampaged once again. It wasn't out of the ordinary that he would become immensely vocal throughout the duration of a fight, but it was strange that he would refer to Natsu as a singular and then to themselves as one, but that was what he was, it was what THEY were. Two sides of the same coin both fighting for dominance.

Fire burned around Natsu's entire body when he jumped back when his senses went into overdrive. From beneath the ground he'd been standing, a sword jutted up through the earth. It looked taxing on her, but she had been able to summon a sword through the ground to try and cut him down from below. "Cheeky." He laughed quietly before backing up even further, fists flying around the swords that she personally held.

"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!" Erza braced herself just in time for Salamander's fist to punch straight into her crossed forearms. The force sent her reeling back for the second time that day.

"The stories about you aren't all that exaggerated I see." Erza groaned under her breath. He really was a monster. All that strength and power, how it could fit into such a young looking body was beyond her. That being said, his body while looking amazingly youthful and prime, was stacked with incredibly lean muscles that were almost glistening in the sunlight. At least she was making him work for it.

"Oh, you've heard stories about me? Have you heard the one about how I'm being considered to be a candidate for a Wizard Saint?" Natsu asked her, loving the way that she granted him with her full focus and even more.

"Y-you, what!?" Erza stared in astonishment, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with the task before her.

"It's not true, but if I start those rumours and get the attention of the council, well..." Salamander shrugged gleefully. It took a split-second for everything to change. All Erza could see was something no longer even remotely Human, no... This was something straight out of a nightmare. There he stood with hellfire raining down around him, setting the world alight in a blazing inferno of sheer destruction. "I'll show them just how powerful the Salamander really is." His voice was dark, filled to the brim with promises of pain and death. Despite his threatening words and the envision of darkness that cloaked him and blocked out the rest of the world, the thing that had immediately seared itself into Erza's brain was the way that he looked at her. The dark onyx eyes were ablaze with vibrant shades of orange and red and even some touches of white in his irises. The narrow eyes of a Dragon were staring out at her. She was entirely too aware of the fact that in his terrifying eyes, there was nothing else but her. Prey.

She forced herself to be ripped from the dark nightmare that he was subconsciously casting over her. She felt a sudden burst of power erupt from within, there was no way that she was letting this monster burn down her Guild. With everything she had at her current disposal, she closed the distance between them and swiped at the skies with all of her swords, flinging him high above.

She'd been expecting him to flip back and land some distance away from her, what she hadn't been expecting was for him to expel jets of fire from the soles of his feet and hands to guide him to the roof of the Guild.

The bastard merely urged her to join him above the ground, not bothering to set a single finger against the Guild itself. Perhaps he was a man that stuck true to his word despite the way that she was sure he was anything but a good man. If he wasn't intending on burning their Guild and she could really beat him, then Fairy Tail could take down the dark Guild that hired him, and possibly the Salamander at the same time, if they could get the council to catch him in the act of decimating the dark Guild.

Only time would tell as their fierce fight raged on, being seen by the eyes of not only the Guild members, but also two others who sat in a clean office in the tower of the magic council. Through the orb that sat comfortably upon a mahogany desk, two members of the magic council watched as the famed Salamander fought tooth and claw with Fairy Tail's Erza Scarlet, both of them being needed to act as pawns in a much greater game.

"He's holding back a great margin of power, but why?" Siegrain asked himself, totally uncaring of the other council member sitting opposite him, looking entirely bored with her situation.

Ultear barely held back a yawn. "Salamander is off limits." She reminded him quietly. Whether Siegrain heard her or simply ignored her, he granted her with no response. His eyes were firmly fixed on the fight in the orb.

"Fine, but I want him to be at the Tower of Heaven just to make things interesting. Make arrangements to have him destroy whatever guild hired him to take out Fairy Tail. Make it messy, make it public. I need word of him taking a contract at the Tower to reach both the Fairy Tail mages and any other interested parties." Siegrain muttered casually, already planning out how he was going to inadvertently use Salamander to rally more pawns to his cause.

"That can be arranged but you seem to believe that Salamander will do what you want him to. He will not do anything that doesn't align with his own goals, that much I can guarantee you, Siegrain." Ultear responded, wishing that the Wizard Saint in front of her would pay more focus to the issue that was 'controlling' Salamander. He believed that just because he was powerful in his own right that he could control the solo mage. No chance.

"Subtly influence him then. You have the arc of time, do you not? Do _something_ that can slowly push him in our direction. Send him an anonymous contract to destroy the Guild that ordered the hit on Fairy Tail. Have a request sent to Fairy Tail, on OUR behalf, ordering the capture of Salamander, at the same time, get Salamander to go to the Tower of Heaven. Things will be interesting when the carnage unfolds." Siegrain laughed to himself. He could see it now, a grand fight between opposing forces, but who would be the one fit for the perfect sacrifice to revive Zeref? The Salamander or Titania? Time would tell, he'd sacrifice them both if he had to, he'd just have to deal with Ultear at a later time.

They cast their gaze at the orb once again so that they could continue to watch the fight between the two renowned mages, fire and sword graced the air. Natsu was grinning like an animal, Erza gritting her teeth to match the snarl, he piroutted gracefully around all of Erza's strikes, her heaven's wheel armour was the closest thing to taking the Salamander down though, it was the one that was making him work the hardest.

She had to admit, she had underestimated him to begin with but as their fight had gone on, she'd taken to approaching him with a mutual respect through the duration of their close combat. He was possibly the strongest wizard she'd ever faced, both physically and magically, he was just a monster in those respects.

"Don't get distracted Fairy Queen, or you'll lose your wings for good!" Natsu's voice broke her out of her distracted mind as a fire wrapped fist had come crashing down on her midrif, breaking through multiple swords that she'd scrambled to her defence. His punch had made her skid across the roof of the Fairy Tail guild where their fight was now taking place.

Once again she noticed that he'd never produced any flames while they were atop the building, was he really that committed to a word once given? Even during the heat of their fight he hadn't dropped his guard, nor his concentration towards their guild.

Salamander was in his absolute element, he was so massively engrossed in his fight with Erza that for a moment, just a split second, he'd lowered his mental guard, the one that surrounded the fiercest Demon in existence.

 _'Let me kill her, Natsu! It's the only way that we'll survive this fight!'_ The Demon inside raged against the mental chains that held it in place. Fire blazed from Natsu's eyes as he pulled his hands away from his attack and instead clutched his head.

"NO!" He screamed, backing up towards the end of the roof, far away from Erza. She had no idea what was happening but the fire mage was in incredible pain, that much was obvious.

"I will not let you ruin this for me, this is MY fight, get out of my head!" He screamed, flames erupting all around his body. The heat was more intense than anything Erza had felt before, even from this distance. How much power was he hiding away inside him?

 _'KILL HER! RIP HER TO SHREDS, BURN HER TO NOTHING, BURN IT ALL DOWN, SET THE WORLD ON FIRE!'_ E.N.D got louder and louder, never relenting, almost breaking free from the chains holding it down.

"Never, not until THAT day comes." Natsu whispered, reigning in his surrounding inferno that had caught onto the wooden beams atop the guild hall. So he'd not kept his word after-all. Erza stared at the fire as it spread, incredibly unimpressed by whatever she had just witnessed. The best fight she'd had in years and it turned out that the infamous Salamander was insane?

"Sorry about that, Fairy Queen, sometimes I gotta focus more on what's inside than what's in front of me." He said as he slowly raised his head to meet her gaze. There was nothing but pure destruction within his eyes, nothing but pure rage and pain, it was the truest gateway to Hell.

"My little slip up has caused your guild hall some damage, now it looks like I absolutely have to beat you to keep to my word, so what do you say that we finish our warm up and go all out now?" He grinned with a feral snarl on show.

Erza didn't know how to respond, that was his warm up? Surely he was bluffing? She too had more power to use but she wasn't about to call their fight up until now just a warm up.

The Salamander cupped his hands in front of him, magic power erupted from within which made the entire ground beneath the guild hall start to rumble erratically. The crowds of Fairy Tail members that had decided to watch the fight were all struggling to stand on their feet.

"FIRE DRAGON; FINAL FLAME!" Once he'd said those words, the world almost fell to a complete standstill. Erza could see everything around her moving at a snails pace. The sky above them had turned into a demonic carpet of flames, the guild hall was almost completely burnt to ash now, yet still everything barely moved, the fire, the crowds, even the Salamander himself was still cupping his hands in front of him, awaiting to unleash this massive attack.

Erza didn't wait around, whatever was happening was her chance to end this and at least save the lives of the people she cared about. Like a blaze of light, she flashed forwards, grabbing Salamander by the throat and plowing him through the burning wreckage of the guild and out of one of the walls, dragging his entire body through the ground until he was submerged in concrete, only his shins still above the ground. She'd used every last ounce of her power to do that, and once she'd finished, the world almost perfectly returned to what it should be, the guild hall was ruined, but Fairy Tail was safe.

"You did it!" She heard someone shout behind her. She was too exhausted to register who it was, all she could do was stare at the unconscious body of the Salamander before her world turned blurry and she too fell unconscious, her body falling to the ground from exhaustion, but, she'd done it. She'd defeated the Salamander, and she had no idea how. She knew she wouldn't have succeeded if the world hadn't slowed to a halt.

He was a true Demon.

 **A/N: Yo, how about a review?**


End file.
